CENTAURO TALLIES FIVE POINTS AS

NO. 12 SAINTS ROUT HARTWICK, 17-2

Mar. 13: The No. 12 St. Lawrence University men’s lacrosse team improved to 2-0 with an impressive 17-2 win over the Hartwick Hawks (1-2) on Tuesday afternoon at North Country Field. Senior Andy Centauro keyed the Saints win with three goals and two assists, while fellow classmates Brendan Lynch (2g,1a) and Nick Mastine (2g,1a) chipped in three points a piece.

The visitors opened the scoring at 3:37 when Brandon Wilk scored an unassisted goal, firing a shot past St. Lawrence goalie Justin Demuth to put the Hawks ahead 1-0. Hartwick played a fairly conservative first half, trying their best to protect their goaltender Jason Fautus. Though the Saints managed 11 shots in the first quarter, it seemed they would be shut out in the opening fifteen minutes of play. However, junior Ben Prime made a crisp pass to a cutting Kevin Russell in front of Fautus, and the Madison, CT native beat the goalie with only 15 seconds remaining the quarter to even the score at 1-1.

The goal ignited the Saints offense, which would run off fifteen consecutive goals, dominating Hartwick on both ends of the turf. The second quarter was all Saints, as they out-shot the Hawks 11-3, scoring seven goals to take an 8-1 cushion into halftime.

Prime scored his only goal of the game 6:17 into the second quarter, giving the Saints the lead for good. He took the ball behind the Hartwick goal, made a move around a defender and planted himself directly in front of Fautus. The goalie had no chance to stop the shot, and the rout was on from there.

St. Lawrence would run off six more goals in the next 7:54 to put away their opponents. Lynch scored his first of the game at 7:01, followed by Centauro’s first (8:25) and Mastine’s first (10:14) to make the score to make the score 5-1. Centauro then extended the lead on a goal at 12:26 from Lynch, while Mastine followed with his second of the game at 13:37. The final goal of the half came from sophomore Alex Slauson with 49 seconds on the clock, with an assist going to Centauro. Slauson’s first goal made the score 8-1 and put the 12th ranked team on cruise control for the second half.

With all of the momentum on their side, the Saints ran off seven goals to begin the second half to make the score 15-1. Goals came from Centauro, who completed the hat trick 35 seconds into the second half, Slauson, Lynch, first year student Will McKee, sophomore Peter Carroll, and junior Rob Kopp who scored a pair of goals at 12:06 and 13:37 to complete the third period scoring.

Pat McCormack scored an unassisted goal at 2:48 of the fourth quarter to complete Hartwick’s scoring on the afternoon, while the Scarlet and Brown answered with two goals from junior Derek Hansen at 6:37 and 10:41 to complete the game’s scoring, as the Saints were impressive in their second home game of the season.

Demuth finished with 4 saves for the Saints in 42:06 minutes, while Fautus closed with 15 saves in 45:00. Each goalie was relieved during the game, as Demuth was replaced by sophomore Tom Hollingsworth

(4 saves) and John Meade (3 saves) replaced Fautus for Hartwick.

The Saints’ thorough victory included a 53-17 shot advantage and a 31-18 edge in ground balls. Sophomore PJ Santora had a solid day for St. Lawrence as well, winning 13-of-16 face-offs. Another impressive aspect of the game for the home team was their stingy defense, as seniors JJ Hearty and Brian Crowley and junior Ben Buskey shut down the Hartwick offense and kept their opponents without a man-up goal

(0-of-4).

St. Lawrence will be in action again on Saturday, March 17th at 12:00pm when they take on No. 7 Nazareth College in a game that could have an impact on the national rankings. The Saints and Golden Flyers will play in Syracuse, NY.

LYNCH AND DEMUTH EARN

LIBERTY LEAGUE AWARDS

Mar. 13: Seniors Brendan Lynch and Justin Demuth earned Liberty League honors this week for their performances against the defending National Champions on Saturday as the Saints defeated Cortland State by the score of 7-5. Lynch was tagged the conference's "Co-Offensive Player of the Week", while Demuth was named the Liberty League's "Defensive Player of the Week."

Lynch led St. Lawrence with two goals and an assist against the Red Dragons. The midfielder from Medfield, MA scored an unassisted goal at 2:39 of the third quarter, which proved to be the game-winner. Lynch shared the "Offensive Player of the Week" honors with Rensselaer's Alex MacDiarmid.

Meanwhile, Demuth was outstanding between the pipes for St. Lawrence, as the Jordan, NY native made 16 crucial saves and allowed only 5 goals to one of the nation's best offenses. The victory moves Demuth to 27-10 in his career at St. Lawrence.

"Brendan and Justin are both very deserving of their recognition after solid performances last weekend," said Saints head coach Mike Mahoney. "We will need them both to play well again on Tuesday against a tough Hartwick team."

The Saints and Hawks are set to meet Tuesday, March 13th at 3:30pm as a rescheduled game from March 3rd. The home game will be the last for the Saints until March 31st when they welcome Vassar College to Canton, NY.

15TH RANKED SAINTS UPEND

No. 12 CORTLAND, 7-5

March 10: St. Lawrence University’s men’s lacrosse team, ranked 15 th nationally, jumped out to a 4-0 lead and held off a late rally by 12 th-ranked Cortland State for a 7-5 win over the Red Dragons on North Country Field Saturday afternoon.

The Saints won their season opener and snapped a two game losing streak to the Dragons, defending NCAA Division III champions. Cortland, 1-2 on the season, won games against the Saints in both 2005 and 2006 with the last Saint win coming in 2003.

Ben Prime scored two goals and Brendan Lynch had one and assisted on two others for the Saints in a hard-hitting defensive game. Goaltender Justin Demuth had 16 saves for the Saints while Matt Hipenbecker had 13 for Cortland.

The Saints took a 4-0 lead in the first 6:53 of the game as Nick Mastine opened the scoring 2:26 in, Ben Prime worked inside and scored 1:11 later and Andy Centauro took a feed from Lynch to make it 3-0 with 9:32 to go in the first period. Mike Long completed the swift Saint start with the fourth goal with 8:07 to play.

Cortland scored on the first of two goals by Ryan Heath with 1:10 to go in the first period to make it 4-1 after one and narrowed the gap to 4-2 on a man up goal by Heath from Kyle Simensky with 8:18 to play in the half.

The Saints had a quick answer for that one as the Saints scored a man-down goal when PJ Santora fed Collin Moon as the Saints made a quick clear after a save by Demuth to make it 5-2 with 7:51 to go and the Saints took that lead into the lockerroom at halftime.

Lynch scored the only goal of the third period with 2:39 to play to give the Saints a 6-2 lead after three, but Cortland cut it to 6-3 with 11:54 to go in the game on a shot by Billy Fuchs. Lynch fed Prime for his second goal of the game with 5:32 to go for a 7-3 Saint lead, but Fuchs scored with 3:15 to go to make it 7-4 and Chris Hanson scored a man-up goal with 33 seconds to go to cut the lead to 7-5 before the Saints were able to run out the clock.

The Saints will host Hartwick in a makeup game Tuesday afternoon at 3:30.

NO. 15 SAINTS SQUARE OFF WITH REIGNING

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS ON SATURDAY

After having the opening game of the 2007 campaign pushed back due to inclement weather, the No. 15 St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team is ready to open up the new season on Saturday, March 10th against the defending National Champions, the Cortland State Red Dragons. Cortland enters the game ranked 12th in the country with a 1-1 record, as the two teams meet at 1:00pm at North Country Field.

The Saints are coming off of their first ever Liberty League championship last season, as they posted a perfect conference record and earned the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

This year's team welcomes back many of the top players, including seniors Brian Crowley, Nick Mastine, Justin Demuth, Andy Centauro, Brendan Lynch, JJ Hearty, and Willie Lapinksi. Head coach Mike Mahoney also has a deep roster this season, including juniors Kevin Russell and Ben Buskey and sophomores PJ Santora and Peter Carroll.